Saturday, July 25, 2020

In the heat of summer


I worked in the garden or four hours last Sunday—under the heat of July, a carpet of green grass under my feet majestic, the music of birds soothing and perfect… and it was fire pressed against my skin and sweat on my lips… and I remembered that I hadn't filled the birdfeeders in a long, long time, and I remembered that hummingbirds had been also missing their sugary water and I must hurry and make some soon…

 
 

Because the infestation that had been affecting my roses was so bad, most of them had to be pruned down almost to the ground.  Even if I had sworn to myself not to be annoyed by this and let it be, I couldn’t stand it any longer.  And I closed my eyes and followed my heart, and I cut… and while I was cutting my thoughts floated onto another tomorrow—onto better days and splendid blooms, and I kept cutting and perspiring some more while hoping for the best...

I later watered each rose bush deeply and tried to remove as much of the yellow leaves still left on branches by hose.  What else could one had done?  The Fisherman insisted that spraying the roses with insecticide; which he did (he did), had been more than enough, and he insisted that I acted unwisely and destroyed what took a year to mature and I just closed my eyes and kept working… under the sun, the marvelous sun of July, which I will remember it later, and wish I could be out under its heat when cold days are here, and skies turn bluesish-black and my soul old and cold.

 

I’ve been freezing watermelons.  I use an ice-cream scoop to scoop out the fruit and then I place the watermelon balls in plastic bags and freeze them.  Watermelons are definitely the epiphany of ‘summer’ to me.  Refreshing like no other fruit, enticingly beautiful to the eye and sweet to the taste buds and I am sure I will never get tired of eating frozen watermelon on scorching hot summer days in the garden, when birds are singing and white fluffy clouds above your head swim the open blue sky like fishes in the lake. 


Watermelon, the sound of sprinklers, flipflops, roses and mourning doves songs.  I love summer.  I love summer!  Can you hear emotions in words?
  

2 comments:

  1. Because of the crazy weather we had early this Spring, warmer than usual, then the endless days of wet and cold weather, roses across the region have suffered greatly.Though they started out glorious,..they are now disease ridden! I blast the yellow leaves almost daily. And if I was as industrious as you I would pick up every bad leaf too! Your other flowers are beautiful!! What a beautiful Dahlia! This time of year is so full of sweaty, dirt filled shoes,..but the reward,...sweet bouquets in the house,..sitting on the patio in the evening,..candles and music,..! The reward for all our hard work!

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  2. I love you Kristi... reading you is like finding myself in your words... we're so much alike... and I'm so glad to hear I don't have to keep blaming myself for my roses not doing so good this year...


    Cielo

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